Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

More than a year ago, Google announced that Chrome Apps transfer be removed from Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of Chrome (but not Chrome OS) some obsolete in 2017, and it seems we’ve come to that point today. Google has switch down the «app» section of the Chrome Web Store for those platforms, meaning you can’t instate Chrome Apps anymore. Google has started sending out emails to Chrome app developers considerable them that Chrome Apps are deprecated, and while previously inducted apps still work, the functionality will be stripped out of Chrome in Q1 2018.

As Google simplified in its blog post last year, Chrome apps are being bumped because no one uses them. In the post, Google said that «generally 1 percent of users on Windows, Mac and Linux actively use Chrome packaged apps.» Chrome Apps moved in two varieties: «packaged apps» and «hosted apps.» Hosted apps were basically imitation bookmarks, which makes little sense on a real desktop OS but conveyed Chrome OS users a way to pin important webpages to certain parts of the UI. The more effective Chrome Apps were «packaged apps,» which could run in the backstage and access hardware like USB ports. Both were desktop-only headlines, and now both will exist as Chrome OS-only features.

There’s also Chrome Increases, which are still desktop only and aren’t going anywhere. Extensions are also inaugurated through the Chrome Web Store and usually live next to the address bar as buttons. This is the plug-in substance for password managers, script and ad blockers, mail checkers, and even the ritual fully fledged app, like Google Hangouts for Chrome.

Google cravings to throw yet another app type into the mix, though. With the shutdown of Chrome Apps, Google is train to bring Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to the desktop. PWAs again aim to give birth to a few app-like features to websites, giving them a full-screen interface, an «installable» app icon, energy notifications, and offline capabilities. They already work on Chrome for Android, so from time to time Google is done here, PWAs would be the only Chrome app keyboard to work across desktop and mobile.

Progressive Web Apps are not Chrome-specific. PWAs aren’t positively a «standard» but are a catch-all phrase for a combination of existing W3C standards like a Web app express for app icons and service workers for push notifications and background updates. Because of this, other comrades are jumping on the PWA bandwagon: it works on Samsung Android phones in the Samsung browser, Firefox on Android, and Work on Android. PWAs got a big boost to move beyond Android when Microsoft confirmed it was bringing PWAs to Windows 10, and even Apple has slowly started being planned on adding PWA support to Safari.

Google says it is «roughly targeting mid-2018» for PWA desktop apps. There’s serene no word on removing Chrome Apps from Chrome OS, though. If however 1 percent of users used Chrome Apps when it was supported on the main desktop OSes, you’ve got to wonder how dead and abandoned the platform will be when it is simply available on Chrome OS.